Gala 2014

After lamenting yesterday that I'd misplaced my camera, I said as much to my husband who replied "Oh, it's in the back of the car.  Along with some other stuff."

These were what I was looking for.

Pictures from our school's fundraiser a couple of weeks ago.

We rent a venue way in advance; choose a theme; decide on catering; and go to work. 

Work the day of Gala, means hauling in all of the children's individual artwork and displaying it.

Same with the classroom art projects.  

Each classroom designs and creates, over many weeks, several pieces for our Live Auction.  

So many different mediums and techniques are used.

Children from as young as 18 months to as old as 15 years collaborate on all of these pieces.  

In addition to the Live Auction pieces, parents, friends, and local businesses contribute items for our Silent Auction.

This is my third year making items for Silent Auction.

Of course, I wouldn't be true-to-form if I didn't wait until the last minute.

So last minute in fact, I finished them Friday night.  

Actually, the wee small hours of Saturday morning.    

I mean, I knew I was making pillow covers.  The easy envelope kind, because with Kona White as a background, you know they're going to get dirty.  

I knew what fabrics I was using.  

I knew I wanted them colorful, and I also knew I wanted to use a pieces from our theme fabric.

Other than that, I had no idea what I was going to do until very late Friday night. 

My description for the Silent Auction table was something like this:  "Two, 18" Modern Geometric Quilted Pillow Covers with Inserts."

 "A color palette of tangerine, lemon, lime, avocado, and turquoise make you think of sipping cool citrusy drinks, poolside, on a hot afternoon."

These are just a little bit of the sewing I've done this year.  I am very glad my camera's been located and pictures downloaded.

MIA

It's hard to write a blog post when your camera's missing.

Even if it wasn't missing, I think I'd still be behind.

Because, as a friend just said recently about herself "I'm just a classic overachiever."

I have that trait too.  

It gets me in trouble more times than I can count.

Because I think I can do it all.

Ha!

I should know better.

Deadlines and commitments for all of those things I said I could do, or THOUGHT I could do, come calling.

Which leads to clutter, and chaos, and sleepless nights.

And creativity.  Which is how this happens in the first place.

I am either around creative women because of my ECMQG affiliation, or I'm tuned into a vast network of creative folks because of IG and Flickr.

I get pulled in by the beauty and enthusiasm of their projects that I want to participate too.  

So I sign-up and commit and create.  But I've lost my real camera.  I know there are pictures on it.  I have my iPhone, which has tons of pictures.  But I have to sync it.  Maybe I'll do that tonight, once it's all quiet.

Or maybe I won't, because I'll be sewing or playing with fabric.

HST Love? Maybe.

This is a little pillow top I started the first week of November as a Christmas gift.   

I'd just finished a last minute (selfish sewing!), Halloween HST pillow and I wasn't quite ready to put away the Halloween fabrics.  Besides, my VGF loves Halloween as much as I do, so receiving a Halloween pillow in December is no big deal.

I wanted to make it different than the one I'd just completed and I've always loved the medallion layout.  

With a few scraps she'd just sent me, as well as a selection of purple, orange, and black charm squares from two of Moda's Halloween lines - the Boo Crew by Sweetwater and Monster Bash from Sandy Gervais - I put this together really fast. 

Simple straight line quilting  a quarter inch apart also made this a really quick finish.  Just a couple of lines in the white bands and denser quilting within the colored bands added subtle texture.  I like how this doesn't scream Halloween.

So in the space of about a week, not one, but two HST projects finished.  

I can't say I like piecing and trimming HSTs any better, but I can say with practice, their precise lines look pretty darn awesome.  

While I'm playing catch up, I really really wish I had my sewing machine on this trip.  But if I did, I wouldn't be posting.  

Happy New Year y'all!

Cindy

Cross Something Off

My friends that know me, understand that being late is part of my charm, personality.
  

I go full out, often over committing, and consequently, run smack into deadlines like a speeding car hitting a brick wall.  It's not pretty.  However, I recover nicely and continue on as if nothing happened.  For this reason, I work best independently.  No point in frustrating others because of my idiosyncrasies.

Now that Halloween has passed and all of our school and family activities are completed, I've had time to actually sit and sew.  Sew for some of the swaps I signed-up for. 

This is a pillow cover I started the first part of October.  It was for a private swap from the Modernista Homemade Flickr group.

This morning, I finally finished all of my items. 

I know we said we'd do small things, but I just love pillow covers.  

Erica is receiving a pillow cover, a small lined container, and a QAYG potholder.  And a pair of cute Halloween spider socks because 1) I can't resist cute socks and 2) I don't wear them because I live in FL.  

I also have TONS of Halloween scraps, strips, and stash.  Sadly, this didn't even make a dent in it.  

From Erica, I received this adorable spider pincushion (we even have some of the same stash, just different colorways!), a crocheted dish towel, and a medium size goody basket. 

I love how she echo quilted the spider webs! 

More spiders on the goody basket, as well as hand quilting!  The lining fabric is something I also have stashed.  

I think I made out pretty good.  I hope Erica likes her items as much as I LOVE mine.  The best part though, came in the note Erica wrote.  "I had intentions of getting this sent earlier, but things got crazy."

Obviously, she and I have similar worlds.  It's okay to be late.  

I'm linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday because I really did just finish today!

Happy Friday!!     

Something for Julie

I have a very artistic sister.  My whole life, she's been to the one to paint, or draw, or now, create intricate mosaics.

I am lucky, because she generously shares her talents.  This is the mural she painted 13 years ago on the walls of SweetP's nursery a few weeks after his birth.  

When I was pregnant, I knew I wanted our baby's room to be sea themed, and Julie offered to paint a mural.  (This was before the Navy started moving us around.)  She poured so much love into creating this vibrant space for my baby!    

It is from the children's book, The Runaway Whale, written by Keith Faulkner and illustrated by Jonathan Lambert.  I immediately fell in love, not only with the story, but the colors and whimsical underwater illustrations that long ago day in the thrift store.  

Every time we travel back to Virginia, I make a point of taking a picture of BigP and BabyBird with his mural.  

When I began sewing again several years ago, I fell in love with batiks because of the color and movement.  Mainly, because I CAN'T draw.  Or paint, unless walls & rooms count.  But playing with fabric and colorful batiks fueled my creative desires.

Julie admired these blocks from the start.  She even claimed them for her own before I was sure I wanted to give them up.  She suggested I make a GIANT duvet cover for her down comforter.  Um, I'm not quite up to that.  

Like so many things, I've put this project away.  Then, two weeks ago, terrible news came from my sister regarding her niece Holly.  She had passed away unexpectedly while sleeping.  A horror I can't begin to imagine.  Understandably, Julie was devastated.  

As soon as I heard, I knew I had to pull this project out of the WiP basket. Julie needed something bright and colorful.  She needed something made with love.  

I'm still not sure how this will look when it's finished.  As it is with all sewing I do for others, Julie has constantly been in my thoughts while I stitch and contemplate design.  I've always said sewing with intention, with thoughtfulness, with mindfulness, is a moving meditation.  I hope Julie will feel my love when this finally arrives on her doorstep.

A Lovely Year of Finishes - #1, Sort of

This is the month I'm attempting to finish MANY of the WiPs that have accumulated.  My friend Wendi and fellow ECMQG member has inspired me with all of her completed quilts because of this linky.

Hosted by Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs and Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts, it's a year long nudge that encourages us to finish what we start.  (I should've joined earlier.)



I have good intentions.  I just get sidetracked by other things.  New fabric.  A new project.  Or maybe a challenge or a swap.  It's always something.  Sometimes, it's just because the idea I have in my head needs to sit an perk awhile longer.

However, after completing a quilt last month that had lingered for 18 months (yikes!), I'd like to make another one leave my house so it can be enjoyed and played with and snuggled under like quilts are intended to do. 

This particular quilt was intended for as a baby shower gift quite awhile ago.  Said baby is probably 17 or 18 months old now.  Not exactly a baby.  Time to finish.

Here is the original post.  And here are the pictures of my Peace, Love, & Happyness quilt as it was when I put it away.

The best part now, after all of this time, is I know EXACTLY how I'm going to quilt it.  

I can't wait to get started again.